It’s hard to tell from the first trailer whether she will prove her doubters wrong, but she does come across as suitably winsome in her role as the little orphan who softens the heart of Jamie Foxx’s selfish billionaire. Cameron Diaz, on the other hand, seems to be lacking some much-needed bite as Miss Hannigan, the monstrous orphanage supervisor. The shadow of Carol Burnett’s Miss Hannigan from the 1982 film version looms large: Burnett’s performance as the alcoholic, greedy overseer was both terrifying and comical in the best of ways. Diaz is an unlikely choice—while she’s proven to be a gifted comedian, she’s rarely taken on roles that were quite this mean—and she strains here to be convincing as an evil overlord.

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Perhaps they’re trying to tamp down the character’s darkness for modern audiences. But this seemingly softer Hannigan, along with the oh-so-current references to George Clooney and Facebook, threatens to make the already-sentimental musical feel even more hokey than the original, and that’s saying something.

Aisha Harris is a Slate culture writer and host of the Slatepodcast Represent.